Paleontology News

Early Mammals Had Dark and Dusky Grayish-Brown Fur, Study Suggests

Life reconstruction of Shenshou lui, an extinct squirrel-like euharamiyidan species from the Middle Jurassic of China. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com.
Mar 13, 2025 by News Staff

Pelage coloration, which serves numerous functions, is crucial to the evolution of behavior, physiology, and habitat preferences of mammals. However, little is known about the coloration of Mesozoic mammals that coevolved with dinosaurs. In a new study, scientists from China, Belgium, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States used a dataset of melanosome (melanin-containing organelle) morphology and quantitatively measured hair colors...

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Artist’s impression of Zeta Puppis, an O-type star approximately 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Puppis. Image credit: Tahina Ramiaramanantsoa.

Nearby Supernova Explosions May Have Caused Several Mass Extinctions on Earth

Mar 13, 2025 by News Staff

According to new research from Keele University and the Universidad de Alicante, near-Earth explosions of giant O- and B-type stars occur at a rate of...

Artistic reconstruction of the terrestrial ecological landscape during, before, and after the end of the Permian mass extinction based on fossil palynomorphs, plants, and tetrapods recovered, as well as sedimentological data from the South Taodonggou section in Xinjiang, China. Image credit: D.H. Yang.

New Fossils Reveal Diverse Terrestrial Ecosystem 75,000 Years after End-Permian Mass Extinction

Mar 12, 2025 by News Staff

Searching for land refugia becomes imperative for human survival during the hypothetical sixth mass extinction. Studying past comparable crises can offer...

Ornithischian trackmakers of the ichnospecies Anomoepus scambus. Image credit: University of Queensland.

200-Million-Year-Old Three-Toed Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Australia

Mar 12, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have studied and described three previously unknown dinosaur track-bearing surfaces from a locality near Biloela in Queensland, Australia. Dinosaur...

Mixodectes pungens (foreground) inhabited the same forests as early primates like Torrejonia wilsoni (background). Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Mixodectes pungens: Enigmatic Mammal from Early Paleocene was Claw-Climbing Arborealist

Mar 11, 2025 by News Staff

A small mixodectid mammal called Mixodectes pungens had skeletal features adapted to living in trees, largely dined on leaves, and weighed about 1.3 kg,...

Otodus megalodon went extinct 3.6 million years ago. Image credit: Alex Boersma / PNAS.

Study Provides New Insights into Biology of Megalodon

Mar 11, 2025 by News Staff

The megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon, is an iconic shark represented primarily by its gigantic teeth in the Neogene fossil record, but the lack of well-preserved...

Chadititan calvoi. Image credit: Gabriel Lio.

New Titanosaur Species Discovered in Argentina

Mar 10, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in northern Patagonia, Argentina, have unearthed the fossils of a previously unknown species of small rinconsaurian titanosaur. Chadititan...

Jeholia longchengi is the first Mesozoic scorpion from China. Image credit: Jie Sun / Xuan et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2025.01.035.

125-Million-Year-Old Scorpion Fossil Uncovered in China

Mar 7, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of extinct scorpion from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. Jeholia longchengi is the...

Life reconstruction of the temnospondyl species Mastodonsaurus. Image credit: Mark P. Witton, https://www.markwitton.co.uk.

New Study Explains How Ancient Amphibians Survived End-Permian Mass Extinction

Mar 4, 2025 by News Staff

Primitive amphibians called temnospondyls survived the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction, which occurred about 252 million years ago, by feeding...

Lacewing larvae from 100-million-year-old Kachin amber. Image credit: Haug et al., doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.13509.

Cretaceous-Period Lacewing Larvae Had Sophisticated Eyes

Mar 4, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have found three lacewing larvae with large forward-directed stemmata (eyes in holometabolans) in 100-million-year-old Kachin amber from...

Artistic representation of a Middle-Late Triassic landscape of southern Brazil depicting two individuals of the proterochampsid archosauriform Retymaijychampsa beckerorum. Image credit: Caio Fantini.

New Species of Triassic Archosauriform Discovered in Brazil

Mar 3, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of proterochampsid archosauriform has been identified from an almost complete fossilized hindlimb found in southern Brazil. Artistic...

Life appearance of the fossil flying squirrel Miopetaurista neogrivensis showing the animal ready to land on a tree branch. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro / ICP.

Giant Flying Squirrels Once Lived in North America

Feb 25, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have found the 4.9-million-year-old (Early Pliocene) fossilized remains of the extinct flying squirrel Miopetaurista webbi in Tennessee,...

An artist’s impression of a herd of lithostrotian dinosaurs (right). Image credit: ABelov / CC BY 3.0.

Large-Bodied Sauropod Dinosaur Lived on Cretaceous European Island

Feb 24, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of titanosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains found in the Hațeg Basin in Transylvania, western Romania. An artist’s...

The fossilized skeleton of Xingxiulong yueorum. Image credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Sauropodomorph Dinosaur

Feb 21, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Meet Xingxiulong yueorum, a new species of early-diverging sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the Early Jurassic epoch. The...

Palm phytoliths from the Eocene Giraffe locality (a-q) and modern phytoliths extracted from foliage of the coryphoid palm Trachycarpus fortunei. Image credit: Siver et al., doi: 10.1093/aob/mcaf021.

Palm Fossils from Subarctic Canada Imply Ice-Free Winters 48 Million Years Ago

Feb 20, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Palm trees of the tribe Trachycarpeae once thrived in what is now subarctic Canada, according to an analysis of fossilized phytoliths — microscopic...

The landscape of Cretaceous Australia. Image credit: Jonathan Metzger / Museums Victoria.

Paleontologists Find World’s Oldest Known Megaraptorid, Australia’s First Carcharodontosaur Fossils

Feb 19, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed five new theropod fossils from the Cretaceous period, including two carcharodontosaurian specimens, in Victoria, Australia. The...

An illustration depicting the onset of the end-Permian mass extinction. Image credit: Dawid Adam Iurino / PaleoFactory, Sapienza University of Rome / Jurikova et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-00646-4.

Post-Permian Extinction Tropical Ecosystems Recovered Much Faster than Expected

Feb 19, 2025 by News Staff

Tropical riparian ecosystems — those found along rivers and wetlands — in what is now North China recovered within as little as 2 million years...

Holotype of Austronaga minuta discovered from Luoping, Yunnan, China, with the skull, anterior cervical vertebrae, and most of the caudal vertebrae preserved on a block. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.231013.

New Species of Triassic Long-Necked Marine Reptile Identified in China

Feb 17, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of small-sized dinocephalosaurid archosauromorph from the fossilized skeleton found in the Chinese...

Bastetodon syrtos. Image credit: Ahmad Morsi.

Fearsome Hyena-Like Mammals Lived in Africa 30 Million Years Ago

Feb 17, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists from the American University in Cairo and elsewhere say they have found an almost complete skull of the hyaenodont Bastetodon syrtos in...

A herd of the Jurassic sauropod dinosaur Camarasaurus walks through a mostly coniferous floodplain forest in what will one day be Utah. Such large dinosaurs transform the landscape with their massive footfalls and bodies, damaging trees and increasing light levels for the saplings on the forest floor. Image credit: Victor O. Leshyk / Northern Arizona University.

Dinosaur Extinction Indirectly Shaped Evolution of Our Fruit-Eating Ancestors, Researchers Say

Feb 17, 2025 by News Staff

Plant-eating sauropod dinosaurs were ecosystems engineers, profoundly changing their environments by knocking down trees and eating high volumes of vegetation....

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